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Game Story: Orioles 6, Red Sox 5

BALTIMORE – The seeds were sown for a stirring come-from-behind victory for the Boston Red Sox over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

But the Red Sox’ generally air-tight bullpen was gashed for five runs over the final two innings as the Orioles wound up overtaking Boston, 6-5.

Eric Gagne melted down in the eighth, charged with four runs that turned a 5-1 advantage into a 5-5 tie.

Hideki Okajima blew the save in the eighth, allowing a tying single by Melvin Mora, and then lost the game in the ninth on a leadoff ground-rule double to center by Brian Roberts, a sacrifice bunt by Corey Patterson and a sacrifice fly to center by Nick Markakis.

The stunning setback cut the Sox’ American League East lead to five games over the New York Yankees.

In some respects, this was a case of two games in one.

In the “opener,” Baltimore’s Erik Bedard dueled Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka. Through seven innings, the Orioles were ahead, 1-0, on a walk, a stolen  base and Miguel Tejada’s two-out RBI single in the first inning.

Then came the eighth, when the teams combined for nine runs, sending a total of six pitchers to mound and heading to the ninth with the game tied at 5-5.

Boston scored five, assuming a 5-1 advantage. The Sox got a clutch game-tying single from Wily Mo Pena on Bedard’s 114th pitch — after he could have been punched out twice by the umpires — and then Julio Lugo’s daring perfectly placed bunt single on the first pitch from reliever Chad Bradford opened the floodgates.
David Ortiz (two-run single) and Manny Ramirez (RBI single) produced a four-run bulge, which, given the Sox’ mighty bullpen, should have been more than enough.
But Eric Gagne floundered in the setup role, giving coughing up three hits and walking one of the five batters he faced. A misplay in right by J.D. Drew, turning a single into a double, put the tying run at second with one out, and Melvin Mora’s single through the left side off Hideki Okajima knotted the game at 5-5.

While the implosion of the Sox’ bullpen was a surprise, Lugo’s bunt qualified as the biggest surprise of the game.

Lugo pushed the bunt expertly between the mound and first base, past Bradford into no-man’s land on the infield grass. All Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts could do was pick it up and take a bite out of it.

It was a clean base hit, an RBI single that snapped a 1-1 tie. By the time the inning was over, Boston had thrilled the pro-Red Sox crowd of 48,993 by scoring three more times.

The rally produced a stunning turn of events. The pivotal inning began with the Red Sox down 1-0. Boston had only two hits, back-to-back singles by Lugo and Dustin Pedroia in the fourth.

And the momentum shift was delivered by an unlikely hero — Pena — with side drama provided by Baltimore manager Dave Trembley and the umpiring tandem of C.B. Bucknor behind the plate and Joe West at first base.

Also playing an unwitting supporting role was Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada, who kicked what might have been an inning-ending double-play ball, though he was able to bat the bobbled ball to third baseman Melvin Mora for a force out, accounting for the second out of the inning.

So with runners at first and second and two outs, Trembley elected to stick with Bedard, who had thrown 109 pitches to that point on a night when where the weather temperature for the first pitch was 93 degrees and humid.

Trembley, no doubt, was mindful of the fact that his predecessor, the first Sam Perlozzo, had pulled Jeremy Guthrie with aone out in the ninth while he was working on a shutout in Fenway Park, opening the gates to a five-run Red Sox rally and victory.
Trembley preferred a matchup of a tiring Bedard against Pena, as opposed to bringing in Bradford, a move Boston manager Terry Francona would have countered by sending up Drew.

The first pitch was a strike. Pena thought he checked his swing on the next pitch, but West ruled he had gone around, making it an 0-and-2 count. Pena reacted angrily, spinning out of the batter’s box and walking taking a walk away from the plate.
On the next pitch, Pena again checked his swing. This time West ruled he hadn’t gone around, though replays showed he might have gone around more than he had on the previous pitch. Bedard’s 1-and-2 fastball looked like a strike, and Bedard started walking off the mound, thinking he had whiffed Pena and preserved his 1-0 lead.

But Bucknor, inconsistent all night, frustrating both teams (notably on a tough strike-three call on Ortiz with runners at first and second and none out in the fourth), called it a ball. And Pena then dunked a game-tying single to center, ending the night for Bedard.

The hits just kept on coming, four in a row for the Sox, before the final out was recorded by the fourth Baltimore pitcher of the inning.

Gagne and Okajima, though, couldn’t stem the Orioles’ tide in the bottom of the inning.

--STEVEN KRASNER

Posted by Chris Venditto  at 11:25 PM | Permalink

Comments

ED VITA | August 11, 2007 9:01 AM link

Soxorado | August 11, 2007 11:47 AM link

Jim | August 11, 2007 12:57 PM link